Reverend Club King RT

[irwired]

Hi All
Does anyone have experience with modifying a Club King? www.reverendguitars.com/reverend/guitars/bolt_on_series/club_king_rt.html
The basics: two 4wire humbuckers 1volume 1 tone and a "base contour" knob, and a three way blade type pickup selector.
I would like to have S and HB combinations and am not opposed to adding some toggles. I have read the (Need Schematic for 2 HB 1 Vol 1 Ton 2 Coil Taps) thread and it looks like it will work.
The second issue with this Guitar is that, even though it has HBs it hums. There is a high resistance to ground from the bridge to the switch-plate (just like a Tele.switch-plate).
I will correct this when I dismantle it to make the wiring changes. Should I add copper shielding at the same time in light of having added the single coil option?
If so what would be the best way to shield a semi-hollow body where the cavity walls are inaccessible?
Thanks

[irwired]

I went in over the weekend and shielded the cavities as best i could with copper foil and copper tape. the pickup and jack wires were already shielded cable. The bridge was grounded
The pickguard was shielded with aluminum so i laid a sheet of copper over the aluminum letting the pups and control panel overlap the copper. the highest resistance reading went from 425 ohms to 12 ohms (bridge to control panel). The hum is completely gone. I will leave the rewiring of the pups for another day.
Thanks to all for the good advise on this site that got me this far.

[newey]

Thanks to all for the good advise on this site that got me this far.

irwired-
Since your original post didn't generate any answers, I don't think "thanks" are needed. Looks like you figured it out by yourself anyway.

But it's good that the hum is gone. The trouble with shielding pups themselves (instead of a cavity) is usually that the shielding disrupts the field of the pickups, and changes tone. So if the tone is preserved and the hum is gone, we call that a success!

[irwired]

Sorry if i was not clear. The pups cavities are in solid wood, so just like strat shielding. the controls are in the semi-hollow body.
So i shielded them the best i could...which turned out to be good enough.
I would have had no idea how to attempt this without the benefit of the many tips on this procedure posted here.
So thanks again

[irwired]

It's time for phase II
I have gathered up 2 push pull pots 500K to replace Volume and tone I will try the treble bleed on the volume pot and add a .022
cap to the tone pot. The pp switches will be used to coil tap the individual pups.
I have 2 issues: I opened up the guitar last night and noticed the original pots are 250s; from what I have read replacing them with 500s is not a problem. Is this a true statement?
the the second complicating issue is the bass contour knob I don't know the value of this pot. Does it matter?

I stopped by Guitar Electronics here in Phoenix last night and spoke with Rob about a replacement bridge piezo pup setup. It looks like it will be perfect for Phase III

I still have a long way to go to come up to the nuttiness standard, you guys have set the bar high.

Thanks

[newey]

ir-

The 500K pots will brighten things up a bit. It's been said here before that turning a 500K pot down to about 8 simulates 250K, so if the new ones are too bright, just turn 'em down a tad. You can then turn the amp up a bit to compensate if needed.

As far as the Bass Contour knob is concerned, if you're not rewiring it, I wouldn't worry about it. There's no law that says the pot values have to match!

If you want to know the resistance of that pot, you could de-wire it and test it across the outer lugs with a meter, that'll give you its actual value (which may be as much as 20% off the nominal value- IOW, if it reads 450K, it's nominally a 500K pot).

If you don't want to dewire it, a Reverend wiring diagram, or a quick inquiry to Reverend's tech page, will probably provide the info. But again, it's not a critical factor if it's working and you aren't going to touch it as part of "Phase II".

[irwired]

Thanks Newey
I have been to the Reverend site and the stated company policy is not to give out schematics. The brightness should be an improvement especially when it is an added tone selection with nothing of the original sound lost. I am hoping for more of a tele sound with the HB split. so added brightness will aid in achieving that sound.

I found a link to a guy who did the pizeo bridge mod on the Reverend site. I don't have speakers at work so have to wait till i get home to check it out.



This is an LR Baggs unit. I hope this adds to the general knowledge base of possibilities.

Cheers ;D

_{Edited: By newey to fix the link.}

[irwired]

Here is a reasonably accurate diagram of the rewire to my Reverend
The sound is improved in the original HB HB configuration. The addition of the S HB or HB S or S S...........well you get the picture.
Phase II is a success. ;D Even more remarkable it worked the first time i plugged it in study 47X solder once So let me say Thanks to the GN2 community and Guitar Electronics folks for their help.



This is the fist image i have posted so i hope it works
I did not lift the pick guard during this operation so I have left the connections to the base contour knob disconnected. Next time i open it up i will connect the wires and add a cap value.
the cap value i used on the tone pot is .022MFD(Vishay/Sprague) and the treble bleed cap is .001MFD The import three way was replaced with a CRL 3 way switch. The tone and volume pots are ALPHA 500k audio taper pots. I should add that the PP and the 3way were too deep for the cavity so some woodworking was required to remove 1/16th or so in the control cavity. The color coding of the wires are actual to this guitar. I don't know who the manufacturer of the pups is. They are called Revtrons by Reverend. With the two tone controls the darks are dark and the highs are sparkling.

I have the components i made for this drawing in excel format and will gladly share them. i have not figured out how to post them without converting them to image files.....thus rendering them useless for composing diagrams.

[newey]

irwired-

Nice job, and +1 for sharing your diagram and your experience.

i have not figured out how to post them without converting them to image files.....thus rendering them useless for composing diagrams.

Can't be done, only .gif and .jpeg files will post.

Did you mean to say that the Bass Contour knob was physically de-wired, or only that you left the connections off on the diagram because you didn't see them, having not removed the pickguard?

I thought you were just leaving that control alone in this mod.

The only other comment I have is that JohnH recommends using a resistor in parallel with the treble bleed cap, he feels that works better. Offhand, I forget the value he recommends, it's around here somewhere . . .

[irwired]

You are correct i did not touch the bass contour wiring. Without accurate information as to how this control is wired i decided to leave the diagram incomplete.

The resistor value is 220K, the place i found it is "simple mod b"
I had intended to add one but talking to Rob at Guitar Electronics his advise was to try it without and add it if needed.

I have opened my email and would be happy to share the excel file of circuit components with my fellow Nutz. Drop me an email and i will attach the file to the reply. ;D

[sumgai]

irwired,


Take a look at what JohnH did to make his Excel-based point:

John's Guitar Freak Calculator


Hope that inspires you to do the same!




sumgai

[irwired]

I can only aspire to his level of knowledge at this point
My education in the workings of guitar electronics commenced when i joined GN2. I have spent considerable time reading through some interesting and informative threads and links. I have a basic understanding of the components but the true engineering side as in Johns most impressive work is well beyond my present capabilities.
I look froward to my continuing education while looking over the shoulders of the senior GN2ers. ;D

thanks to all

Those also serve who sit and watch?

PS Nice Kitty

[sumgai]

irw,

Actually, I posted that link only to give you a clue as to how to make a post that includes an Excel spreadsheet, among other things. It wasn't meant to side-track you away from your current project.....

Broken down, John simply posted his Excel sheet somewhere else on the web, then linked to that host provider by using the [a href=" and "] and [/a] tags. He then posted some screenshots to that server (or another one, that's up to the individual poster, where to store things on the World Wide Wait), and called those screenshot images with the [img] and [/img] tags - that's what makes them display.

Sadly, one can display only JPG, GIF and/or PNG files, here on this Forum. At least that's how it's been since we started. Since then, the software developers have added a separate tag for YouTube videos, but nothing else beyond that.

I think you can do the same thing as John did, don't you?

HTH




sumgai

p.s. That would be Tom, the House Guard Cat. 15 years old and still kickin' butt and takin' names! ;D

[irwired]

I had to try John H's 150K Ohm resistor mod and the reverend needed new strings.........so i had a go and the results are stunning
I could not believe that a resistor could make such a difference ;D ;D ;D
the sound changes so little as the volume is reduced that the effect on tone change is undetectable to my ears


Here is the finished diagram and some pictures





The knob you see attached to the pick guard is the base contour knob. the cap on the knob has 22U on it. anyone know what that value means?



Here is the back of the control panel showing the PP coil taps. and if you look closely the 150K resistor under the treble bleed cap. It was more convenient to gang the grounds and shielding together.You can see that insulated in shrink wrap.




The final inspection went fine

I also took this opportunity to refresh the set up.
When the Reverend was apart for the coil tap the neck relief went away. In an effort to get her playable again i over compensated the bridge height. This time i increased the relief .005" or so and lowered the bridge height, set the string height to 4.5 6/4ths" and the adjusted the pup height. It's playing sweeeeeet ;D ;D ;D

Sorry not to be set up for sound samples

Cheers to all
IRW